Artist: Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. 

Rollins began performing professionally in 1948, and made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (trombonist J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). Within the next few months, he made a name for himself, recording with Johnson and appearing under the leadership of pianist Bud Powell, alongside trumpeter Fats Navarro and drummer Roy Haynes, on a seminal "hard bop" session. 

Between 1951 and 1953, he recorded with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. A breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo", "Airegin", and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Davis that also featured pianist Horace Silver, these recordings appearing on the album Bags' Groove. 

Rollins briefly joined the Miles Davis Quintet in the summer of 1955. Later that year, he joined the Clifford Brown–Max Roach quintet. Studio albums documenting his time in the band are Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus 4. After the deaths of Brown and the band's pianist,  Richie Powell, in a June 1956 automobile accident, Rollins continued playing with Roach and began releasing albums under his own name on Prestige Records, Blue Note, Riverside, and the Los Angeles label Contemporary. 

His widely acclaimed album, Saxophone Colossus,  was recorded on June 22, 1956, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, former Jazz Messengers  bassist Doug Watkins, and his favorite drummer, Roach. This was Rollins's sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition "St. Thomas", a Caribbean calypso based on "Hold him Joe" a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill composition also known as "Mack the Knife"). 

In 1956 he also recorded Tenor Madness, with Davis's group – pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with John Coltrane, who was also a member of Davis's group. At the end of the year Rollins appeared as a sideman on Thelonious Monk's album Brilliant Corners and recorded his own first album for Blue Note Records, entitled Sonny Rollins, Volume One, with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and Roach on drums. 

In 1957 he made his Carnegie Hall debut, and recorded again for Blue Note with Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver or Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey  (released as Sonny Rollins, Volume Two). That December, he and Sonny Stitt were featured together on Dizzy Gillespie's album Sonny Side Up. 

The same year, Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: Freedom Suite.

and funk rhythms. Some of his bands during this period featured electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented drummers. 

In 1997, he was voted "Jazz Artist of the Year" in the Down Beat magazine critics' poll. The following year, Rollins, a dedicated advocate of  environmentalism, released an album entitled Global Warming.